Torah

Chanukah, Hellenism, and Hamas

Jewish history isn't random. Selected to represent Hashem and inspire moral and religious spirit, our battles aren’t local and aren’t purely geopolitical. We stand...

Rebbe’s Chanukah campaign burns bright

Fifty years ago, The Rebbe launched his global Chanukah campaign. Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson's aim was to share the light of Chanukah with Jews around...

Tisha B’av: A Revolution of Consciousness

Rabbi Moshe Taragin With every passing year, our mourning for the lost Temple becomes more difficult. The disastrous fall of Yerushalayim and the derailment of...

Israel Is Not a Start-up Nation

Rabbi Moshe Taragin What happens when grand visions meet harsh realities? For hundreds of years, the land of Israel was a shimmering dream buoying the...

Ask Rabbi Shochet on Rabbi’s Sermons and Jewish Unity

Is Presentation Everything? Dear Rabbi I attend a Synagogue where the Rabbi, not originally English, struggles to express himself properly. We all understand what he’s saying...

Ask Rabbi Shochet on some Chanuka Customs

Dear Rabbi I loved your reply last week explaining the idea of gift giving on Chanukah. So much so, that I also thought it was...

Reflections on the passing of Dayan Chanoch Ehrentreu zt”l

By Rabbi Jeremy Conway  Somehow it was my great zechus to become a zanav l’aroyos – “a tail to lions” and in particular to the...

The “State” of Hashem in Our World

  By Rabbi Moshe Taragin for Rosh Hashanah "All of humanity pass before You as sheep.. ". On Rosh Hashanah, Hashem reviews all human behavior, scrutinizes...

Moving and Meaningful Tisha B’Av programme Whitefield Community Kollel in their new home, Shomrei...

Sunday Tisha B’Av saw a well-attended day long programme offered at Shomrei Hadas Shul Prestwich by Whitefield Community Kollel. In the day’s programme, led by...

Donkeygate

  by Rabbi Moshe Taragin A lot was at stake. We were perched to enter the promised land, launch Jewish history, and assemble the kingdom...

Naso, a brave new world

The drama of a nazir illustrates our delicate interface with the physical world which surrounds us. God crafted us as spiritual creatures- more angel...

Parshat Bechukotai: what drives history?

Our sedra contains the tochacha, a whole litany of curses that will befall the Jewish People should they turn away from a life of...

Parshat Behar: is the Torah speaking economics?

What is the Torah’s take on economics? The laws of Shemittah and Yovel perhaps tell us. Every seven years was to be a “Shabbat of...

Torah reading: why specify the obvious?

Lineage The sidra begins, "Say to the kohanim the descendants of Aaron". The definition of the kohanim as descending from Aaron seems too obvious to...

The changing tides of the Omer

Jews experience time very deeply. Different stages of our calendar are suited for different religious experiences. During the forty days leading up to Yom...

Sefiras Ha’omer: Achieving the impossible

Imagine a teenager lying on a grassy field, gazing into the night sky. As he stares up at the stars, he thinks to himself,...

Parshat Kedoshim: what is holiness?

What does the term kedusha mean? What is holiness? In what way is God holy, and how are we meant to copy it? Many...

OzTorah: vengeance – K’doshim

THE EXTRA PHRASE The Torah constantly tells us who is speaking (generally God) and who is being addressed (often Moses, often the people of Israel). We...

What sort of Jewish state?

The Palestinians and the world are not stupid. They know quite well that we are a Jewish and democratic State. Their deeds leave no...

Elon Musk and freedom of speech

Dear Rabbi I wonder what you think about Elon Musk taking over Twitter. As a Jew, the idea of him opening up “freedom of speech”...